Airplane Accidents Angola

The United Nations gave the government and rebels in Angola notice of the flight plan for a plane that was shot down, a U.N. spokesman said. The plane was believed hit by antiaircraft fire and went down Saturday with eight people aboard. There was no word on survivors. The C-130 was the second U.N.-chartered aircraft to crash in the war zone in eight days.

At least 40 people aboard a Soviet-built Antonov 24 airplane were killed when it slammed into a field and exploded shortly after takeoff from the international airport in Luanda, Angola's capital. It was the second Antonov to crash in the southwest African country in less than three weeks. The plane was on a domestic flight to Namibe, about 420 miles south of Luanda. An Antonov 26 crashed Oct. 31, prompting an order grounding all Antonov aircraft.

Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos has promised to help a U.N. team reach the wreckage of two U.N.-chartered planes that recently crashed in a war zone with a total of 22 people on board, U.N. special envoy Benon Sevan said. However, Sevan did not win government assurances of a cease-fire so a U.N. rescue team can search for survivors.

A charter plane burst into flames minutes after takeoff, crashing into a remote jungle in a key diamond-mining region, Angolan authorities said. All 48 people aboard were killed, reports said. The cause of Tuesday evening's crash was not immediately known. The Antonov-26 had just left the northern town of Saurimo, 500 miles east of Luanda, the capital, when the plane exploded into a fireball, Civil Aviation Director Branco Ferreira said.

For 10 days, U.N. staff members have waited with anger and frustration to find out the fate of 10 colleagues aboard a plane that crashed in Angola. Both sides in the African nation's civil war have refused to stop fighting long enough to allow rescuers to reach the crash site. Over the weekend, a second aircraft with U.N. personnel was reported shot down over Angola, and their fate also remains uncertain.

U.N. workers in Angola have picked up an SOS from a U.N. plane that crashed near a war zone in the central highlands, raising hopes for survivors, a spokesman said Monday. U.N. spokesman Hamadoun Toure said the United Nations is pressing the government and the rebel group UNITA to call a cease-fire and allow rescuers to reach the downed craft. "This may be our last chance to rescue innocent U.N. peacekeepers," Toure said by phone.

At least 40 people aboard a Soviet-built Antonov 24 airplane were killed when it slammed into a field and exploded shortly after takeoff from the international airport in Luanda, Angola's capital. It was the second Antonov to crash in the southwest African country in less than three weeks. The plane was on a domestic flight to Namibe, about 420 miles south of Luanda. An Antonov 26 crashed Oct. 31, prompting an order grounding all Antonov aircraft.

A U.N. aircraft with 14 people on board reportedly crashed Saturday in Angola in an area where the government's army has been fighting UNITA rebels, a U.N. spokesman said. There was no word on whether any of the 10 passengers and four crew members had survived. There also was no immediate information on the cause of the crash. Most of the passengers were members of the U.N. Observer Mission, said deputy U.N. spokesman Monoel de Almeida e Silva.

A charter plane burst into flames minutes after takeoff, crashing into a remote jungle in a key diamond-mining region, Angolan authorities said. All 48 people aboard were killed, reports said. The cause of Tuesday evening's crash was not immediately known. The Antonov-26 had just left the northern town of Saurimo, 500 miles east of Luanda, the capital, when the plane exploded into a fireball, Civil Aviation Director Branco Ferreira said.

President Quett Masire of Botswana and an aide were slightly injured when an engine on the presidential jet exploded in flight, forcing an emergency landing in southeastern Angola. Masire and seven aides were flying to the Angolan capital of Luanda for a meeting of southern African heads of state when the right engine of the twin-engine, British-made executive jet exploded and fell off the aircraft, a presidential spokesman said.

A cargo plane slammed into a shantytown outside Luanda, the Angolan capital, killing at least 28 people and demolishing five houses. Rescue teams retrieved the bodies of the four Russian crew members and seven passengers, believed to be Angolans, as well as of 17 people on the ground. State radio said that it was not known who had chartered the aircraft but that it was not the government or the United Nations.

There was simply no stopping him, Hilton Wilkinson's mother recalls. A son's unspoken love for his father is not something to be reasoned with. "I want to bring Daddy back, dead or alive," Wilkinson told his mother and two sisters in suburban Johannesburg, South Africa. The distraught young pilot then left home for this capital city where, until a few months ago, he worked for a charter company. Wilkinson, 25, boarded United Nations Flight 806A here Jan.

Angola's UNITA rebel group told the United Nations that it located the wreckage of a second U.N.-chartered transport plane, which crashed Jan. 2 with nine aboard, U.N. officials reported. Initial reports said no survivors were found. Meanwhile, the U.N. Security Council voted to consider imposing new sanctions on UNITA.

An international rescue team reached the crash site Friday of a U.N. plane that went down two weeks ago in central Angola. One journalist reported seeing burned and mangled bodies among the wreckage. The plane was carrying 14 people when it crashed Dec. 26. U.N. spokesman Hamadoun Toure said he expects an update soon from the investigation team, but he could not say when that information would be released.

Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos has promised to help a U.N. team reach the wreckage of two U.N.-chartered planes that recently crashed in a war zone with a total of 22 people on board, U.N. special envoy Benon Sevan said. However, Sevan did not win government assurances of a cease-fire so a U.N. rescue team can search for survivors.

For 10 days, U.N. staff members have waited with anger and frustration to find out the fate of 10 colleagues aboard a plane that crashed in Angola. Both sides in the African nation's civil war have refused to stop fighting long enough to allow rescuers to reach the crash site. Over the weekend, a second aircraft with U.N. personnel was reported shot down over Angola, and their fate also remains uncertain.

A Boeing 727 crashed in northeastern Angola but everyone aboard survived, according to a radio report from Angola's capital, Luanda. The passenger plane, chartered by Angolan Air Transport, crashed at an airport in the remote northern town of Lucapa, about 500 miles east of Luanda, according to the unconfirmed report. It was unclear how many people were aboard the flight, which originated in Luanda, or whether anyone was injured.

The government of Angola finally responded to repeated U.N. requests for safe passage to the site of a downed plane, promising full cooperation Thursday in an effort to determine the fate of the 14 people on board. The response came as the U.N. Security Council called an emergency meeting and threatened to retaliate for Angola's inaction.

The United Nations gave the government and rebels in Angola notice of the flight plan for a plane that was shot down, a U.N. spokesman said. The plane was believed hit by antiaircraft fire and went down Saturday with eight people aboard. There was no word on survivors. The C-130 was the second U.N.-chartered aircraft to crash in the war zone in eight days.

Rebel forces Saturday shot down a U.N.-chartered cargo plane, the second United Nations plane apparently attacked in Angola's central highland war zone in eight days, U.N. officials said. The C-130 aircraft, with eight people aboard, including one American, was hit by antiaircraft fire 20 minutes after it took off from the city of Huambo, about 325 miles southeast of Luanda, the capital, U.N. spokesman Hamadoun Toure said.